{"id":231266,"date":"2024-06-12T06:33:35","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T06:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/succession-star-alexander-skarsgard-dives-into-planet-saving-startups-with-new-podcast\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:17:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:17:18","slug":"succession-star-alexander-skarsgard-dives-into-planet-saving-startups-with-new-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/succession-star-alexander-skarsgard-dives-into-planet-saving-startups-with-new-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Succession star Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd dives into planet-saving startups with new podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Alexander Skarsg\u00e5rd cuts a conflicted figure on the screen. He\u2019s famously portrayed an abusive partner and a psychotic tech billionaire, all with an intensity that would have the world\u2019s most notorious CEOs quaking in their boots.<\/p>\n

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So it\u2019s no surprise he\u2019s now being cast as the perfect foil to the conflicted world of investing, where the needs of the investor often clash with the needs of the planet. Skarsg\u00e5rd is launching How We Fix This<\/em>, a new podcast that seeks to highlight some of the world\u2019s most exciting, planet-saving ventures and give listeners fresh access to climate change-fighting role models.<\/p>\n

\u2018A complete, profound feeling of emptiness<\/strong>\u2018<\/h2>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd is hosting and narrating the new podcast series developed alongside impact-driven venture capital fund Norrsken, started in 2019 by Klarna co-founder Niklas Adalberth.<\/p>\n

Adalberth founded Klarna alongside Victor Jacobsson and current CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski in 2005, but eventually realized his dreams of financial independence weren\u2019t what he imagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to Las Vegas to celebrate, ordering champagne and chicken, a big marble floor suite, shopped like crazy, but felt nothing. There was a complete, profound feeling of emptiness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This forced Adalberth into therapy and to reassess whether he was making the world a better place with Klarna, a company that was encouraging more consumption and putting added strain on the world\u2019s resources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He left the company in 2015, progressively selling his shares and in the process missing his chance to become a billionaire.<\/p>\n

What followed was Norrsken, a venture capital fund that focuses on impact startups, or companies addressing one or two of the UN\u2019s 17 Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDG). The Norrsken fund has $50 million in assets under management, backing startups addressing everything from demand for sustainable EV batteries to burping, polluting cows.<\/p>\n

The podcast is intended to increase the pool of \u201crole models\u201d for students and graduates poised to help change the world, according to Adalberth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Klarna co-founder thinks a breadth of national role models, including Northvolt co-founder Peter Carlsson, is one of the reasons that Sweden excels in winning impact funding.<\/p>\n

To raise the profile of impact-based business, Adalberth needed a familiar face to get his message across. Naturally, he turned to fellow countryman Skarsg\u00e5rd.<\/p>\n

The Swede-American caught Adalberth\u2019s attention last year when he voiced a short documentary on the financial value of nature.<\/p>\n

The actor gave a playful, expletive-filled voiceover<\/a> to highlight Oxford University research into the tradeoff between GDP and environmental damage. Playing dumb, Skarsg\u00e5rd told his audience then that he would dilute the research \u201cto something even a Hollywood actor could understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once again, Skarsg\u00e5rd\u2019s role is to be the accessible voice who brings Norrsken\u2019s stories to life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movement needs to happen, it\u2019s not only about capital. It\u2019s also a cultural enlightenment that needs to happen. And I think Alexander, with his platform and ability to tell stories, that he is using that to do maximum good with this initiative.\u201d Adalberth says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Spotify<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Sweden\u2014a global leader in impact<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd and Adalberth are teaming up with another Swedish tech giant, Spotify, to exclusively publish their podcast.<\/p>\n

The Swedes have a strong track record of breeding globally successful companies, such as Spotify, Klarna, and clothes retailer H&M. That entrepreneurial spirit is perhaps paradoxical to Swedish culture and the \u201claw of jante,\u201d which often prevents people from bragging about their successes.<\/p>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd sees why that could be a disadvantage in the business world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy observation as a Swedish-American, and I\u2019m obviously generalizing here, is that Americans have a real talent for storytelling and big ideas. Swedes tend to be drawn to the more humble and understated, bordering on self-deprecation,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd told Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But Adalberth and Norrsken\u2019s CCO Daniel Goldberg think that modesty for personal success might be why Sweden is so far ahead of its peers in impact investing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sweden gobbles up a huge share of sustainable investing dollars, with eight times as many impact startups as the world average, according to Adalberth. Where the country might lack in self-promotion, it might gain in a social conscience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow we define success, what that does to the overall standards and systems, I think that is something that is maybe more debated, perhaps in Europe and especially Sweden. I think that\u2019s where we also see this next generation of startups, perhaps more than the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumility or not, the key is probably to have conviction and a strong confidence in yourself and what you\u2019re trying to sell,\u201d Skarsg\u00e5rd says.<\/p>\n

Stranger than fiction<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Skarsg\u00e5rd has tackled a lot of roles in his time on the screen, most taking advantage of his physicality like Tarzan and the Viking prince Amleth in The Northman<\/em> or as an abusive husband in Big Little Lies<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s Lukas Matsson, the antagonistic GoJo CEO from HBO\u2019s Emmy-winning series Succession<\/em>, for which he may be best remembered. It\u2019s hard for any Succession<\/em> fan not to be drawn into the parallels as Skarsg\u00e5rd wades into the venture capital space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After playing Matsson for two years, Skarsg\u00e5rd still doesn\u2019t know what drives the character, who seemingly had no boundaries as he ventured into a hostile takeover of the media group Waystar Royco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He views Matsson more as an adrenaline junkie motivated by a challenge, rather than someone driven purely by greed. So asked whether he found himself comparing Matsson to the \u201cimpact-driven\u201d founders on his podcast series, Skarsg\u00e5rd had a nuanced response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world would probably be a better place with less people like Lukas Matsson and more people like the founders on How We Fix This<\/em>,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then again, tell a guy like Lukas Matsson there\u2019s no way he can restore all the coral reefs in our oceans.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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